Cucumis melo, a fruit whose history, varieties, and nomenclature perplex even experts. All forms of the species hybridize readily with each other, or indeed with other family members; the French have traditionally taken care to avoid ‘incestuous intercourse’ by keeping melons and cucumbers well apart.
The melons familiar in western countries are eaten as dessert. In the Orient cooking melons, eaten as vegetables, are equally familiar. These two broad categories are treated here together. Neither includes the watermelon, which belongs to a different genus.
The wild ancestors of C. melo seem to have been native to the region stretching from Egypt to Iran and NW India. This fits the belief of many people that the finest melons of all in modern times come from Afghanistan and Iran and adjacent areas.
There is little clear evidence of melons being eaten in ancient times. References from classical Greece and Rome are sparse and lack the enthusiasm which one would certainly have expected if they had really good melons on their tables.
After the fall of the Roman Empire the rising Arab civilizations began to cultivate melons. Ibn Al Awam (d. 1145), the agricultural writer of Andalusia, lists six kinds of melon (none, according to his editor, recognizable as a variety known now).
The first unmistakable reference by a European writer is by Albertus Magnus (13th century), who distinguished between the watermelon and the ‘pepo’, describing the latter in terms which fit the modern cantaloupe (as the term is used in Europe, not as it is used in the USA). Melons were introduced to England in the 16th century, but had to be grown under glass bells or in glasshouses or ‘steam-pits’. The same will have been true of most European countries except for those in the Mediterranean region.
Meanwhile the melon had reached China, where it began to develop into cooking varieties. And in 1493 it reached the New World, when Columbus took melon seeds to Haiti on his second voyage. The new fruit was adopted with great enthusiasm by the Indians of C. and S. America; and the diffusion of melons into parts of N. America followed, although it was not until the last two decades of the 19th century that commercial growing and varietal development began in earnest.
These fall into three main categories, but there are also hybrids of an intermediate kind.
Cantaloupe melons are named for the town of Cantalupo near Rome, where they are supposed to have been first grown in Europe. They are among the most fragrant and delicious of melons, typically small, round, with a rough surface fissured into segments. The French Charentais is very small, has a yellow skin and orange flesh. The Ogen, named for the Israeli kibbutz where it was developed, has a yellow skin with green stripes rather than fissures, and green flesh. Galia is a related variety. Sweetheart has bright scarlet flesh. Besides varieties with green or salmon-coloured flesh, there are several with creamy-white flesh.
However, the name Cantaloupe is often used in N. America for melons in the next category
Netted (or musk or nutmeg) melons vary greatly but have one feature in common: a light network pattern which overlies and stands out from the surface. This was indicated by the word reticulatus in the former botanical name C. melo reticulatus. The flesh is usually but not always orange. Size varies from small to quite large. The skin may be whitish, yellow, or green; and it may or may not be segmented.
In N. America these are the most important melons of commerce. The best-known types are known as ‘cantaloupe’ and Persian. The latter is globular in shape, may weigh 3 kg (6 to 7 lb) and has a distinctive aromatic flavour. It is thought to have been introduced to California by Armenians.
Winter melons are so called because they ripen slowly and are not ready until late autumn. If picked before fully ripe, they will ripen slowly in storage, a procedure which is only possible to a very limited extent with the other categories of melon. Winter melons are slightly elongated, like a rugby football, and their skins are finely ribbed. The melons of Cavaillon were thought to be the finest by Alexandre Dumas, who traded a complete set of his books (well over 300 volumes) for a lifetime supply.
However, the best known of the winter melons is the Honeydew, which has a yellowish, relatively smooth, skin and pale green flesh. Casaba melons, named after a Turkish town and in the same group, usually differ from Honeydews in having a rough skin. They have green or green and yellow skins and pale yellow flesh. Some connoisseurs believe that the finest fruits in this group are the long oval ones, with white flesh, of the cultivar Jharbezeh Mashadi in Iran.
The difficulty of knowing in advance whether a melon will be good or not is notorious. A French writer quoted by Leclerc (1925) declared pessimistically that it was necessary to try 50 to be sure of finding one really good specimen. However, the ripeness of a melon may be gauged by pressing the end opposite the stem. If the melon is ripe, it will yield quite noticeably. Cantaloupes and netted melons do not ripen much after being picked, so should not be bought if they are definitely hard.
The common practice of chilling melons before eating them makes them more refreshing, but diminishes the flavour. A good melon should not need sugar. Some people add a sprinkling of pepper or ginger, or salt.
These are grown in India, China, Japan, and SE Asia. They are not sweet and are used for cooking like other vegetable gourds. Oil may be pressed from the seeds. See also wax gourd.
The best known of the ‘cooking melons’ is the pale, elongated variety called pickling melon or Chekiang melon, which is grown from Thailand through SE China to Japan. As its name suggests, it is pickled as well as being eaten fresh. The most important melon of this kind grown in India is known as kakhi/kakri and used to be classified as C. melo var utilissima, the last word of which name is borne out by a passage cited by Watt (1889–96):
This appears to me to be by far the most useful species of [the genus]; when little more than half-grown, they are oblong, and a little downy; in this state they are pickled; when ripe they are about as large as an ostrich's egg, smooth and yellow; when cut they have much the flavour of the melon, and will keep good for several months, if carefully gathered without being bruised, and hung up; they are also in this stage eaten raw, and much used in curries.
Melon seeds are a common snack food wherever melons are grown. They are also used in cookery for certain dishes, e.g. in C. and S. America and in China.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Leclerc, Henri (1925), Les Fruits de France, Paris.
